Throughout the years a wide variety of cabinet door latches have been developed for the purpose of keeping the doors closed but readily releasable, sometimes by an opening pull on them. Such latches may involve magnetically-engaged or frictionally-engaged parts between the door and the cabinet. Often they employ inter-engaged mechanical means, as where a pair of lips or jaws are engaged. Some of the latch means have been operable by merely exerting an outward pull on the door to open the cabinet. Other systems employ an external unlatching operator button or the like which requires manual dexterity.
It has been common experience that small children are fascinated with opening and closing cabinet doors and such latches. Young children soon solve the mysteries of the latching systems, which means that they then have ready access to the contents of the cabinet. It is a primary purpose of this invention to provide latched cabinet structure, the unlatching of which is unobtrusively accomplished by the use of a person's foot or toe and which operation is obscured from the child at the floor level and, further, which is accomplished by imparting a thrusting pressure in a direction and at a location not normally within the skill or in the view of small children. It is a further objective of this invention to provide latching structure for cabinets that is capable of inexpensive manufacture and which may be easily installed for proper operation by mechanically unskilled persons, usually requiring only the use of a common screwdriver.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will be understood from the Detailed Description in this specification.